Growing Up in Scotland

Organisation responsible: Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) is commissioned and funded by the Scottish Government and is being carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen), in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) at the University of Glasgow.

Background and purpose: GUS follows the lives of a national sample of Scotland's children from infancy through to their teens. It is one of the largest longitudinal studies ever done in Scotland and is designed to provide information that will help develop policies affecting children and their families. The study seeks to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years (and their main carers) and to generate a better understanding of how children's start in life can shape their longer term prospects and development with particular reference to the role of early years service provision.

Study length: The survey began in 2005 and initially recruited a total of 8,000 children in 2 cohorts: 5,000 babies (~10 months) in the birth cohort and 3,000 toddlers (~34 months) in the child cohort. Funding was originally secured for the first four sweeps of data collection (2005/06-2008/09) with parents of children in both cohorts interviewed annually. As of 2018, an additional cohort of children born between June 2004 and May 2005 will be recruited. The Scottish Government commissioned the second stage of GUS (2009/10-2012/13) which will involve following up the original birth cohort for a further four years and the introduction of a new birth cohort in 2011/12.

Telephone and on-line interviews with parents of Birth Cohort 2 children at age 4 were launched in January 2014 and ran to January 2015. 

Survey content: The interviews at each sweep collect information from the child's main carer about a range of issues related to young children and their parents including:

• characteristics and circumstances of children and their families in Scotland;
• housing, neighbourhood and community - including accommodation characteristics, ownership of material goods, moving home, appraisal and use of local facilities, involvement in local groups;
• food and eating - including eating habits, main meals, types of food eaten, sources of advice on children's diets/healthy eating;
• activities with others - including participation in educational, social or recreational activities at home and elsewhere, and visits to places or events;
• child health and development - including general health, long-standing and acute illness, health service contact, use of Accident and Emergency, hospital admissions, anthropometric measurements, communication and behavioural development indicators;
• parenting styles and responsibilities - including awareness, use and appraisal of parenting techniques, parent-child activities, household division of labour;
• main carer support - including informal social networks, access to informal support, attendance at groups and classes, attitudes towards and use of formal support services;
• childcare and work-life balance - including details of childcare used, cost, choice, employers' family friendly policies, and attitudes to work-life balance;
• experience of pre-school - including uptake, reasons for enrolling, child's adjustment to and readiness for pre-school, sources of advice and information;
• main carer's physical and emotional health - including general health, long-standing illness, depression and stress, couple relationships.

Target population: Young children resident in Scotland.

Sample size: c. 8,000 children were enrolled into the study in 2005/06 (c. 5,000 babies and c. 3,000 toddlers) (i.e. achieved sample size at Sweep 1). A further c. 6,000 children born between March 2010 and February 2011 were enrolled during 2010-11 and were interviewed for the first time in 2011/12 when the baby was 10 months old. The sample was drawn from Child Benefits Records (CBR) held by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Response rate: In the first year (2005/06), 80% of families eligible to take part in the original birth cohort responded (Table 1). Response rates for all subsequent sweeps are also shown, as a percentage of all cases eligible to take part at that sweep, and as a percentage of all Sweep 1 cases.

Table 1. GUS Birth Cohort 1 response rates

The response rate of the Child Cohort was 79% at Sweep 1 with 77% of the original sweep responding at the last sweep in 2008/09. The response rate of Sweep 1 of Birth Cohort 2 was 65%. The lower response rate is explained by differences in the way the Child Benefit sample was administered by HMRC and DWP between the two cohorts. When a comparable approach is used, the response rates bewteen the 1st sweeps of both cohorts is very similar (65% versus 62%). 

Method of data collection: The main source of data is a face-to-face computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) with the cohort child's main carer, usually the child's mother.

Smallest geographical unit reported: Scotland.

Availability of results and further information: Reports from Birth Cohort 1 Sweeps 1-6 and Birth Cohort 2 Sweep 1 of the survey are currently available from Growing Up in Scotland. The corresponding datasets are available to download from the UK Data Service.